In general, autostereoscopic displays provide a viewer with a three-dimensional display without the use of special glasses, goggles, or other specialized viewing aids. One type of autostereoscopic display, known as a parallax display with a lenticular screen (which is one type of parallax barrier), includes a viewing surface, or screen, that is covered with display elements, such a vertically extending lenticules (or lenses) and an interleaved image on a display surface (such as a computer screen or a print on paper, Bristol board or other medium). The lenticules are specifically designed to emit light of varying intensity in different directions, such as by being convexly-shaped.
When creating an autostereoscopic display, it is known to acquire a plurality of source images from a plurality of positions in space using a single image acquisition device repeatedly, or a plurality of such devices, resulting in a set of sequential source images (i.e., multi-viewpoint photography). It is also known to combine these source images into a single interleaved subject image data file, where the interleaved subject image data file is encoded with a parallax effect that is able to be decoded after the data file has been transferred to a display surface and viewed through a properly configured optical member.
The following prior art references provide general background information regarding the creation of an autostereoscopic image: (a) United States Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0067638 to Kotaro Yano; (b) U.S. Pat. No. 7,092,003 to Siegel et al. and (c) U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,210 to Lipton et al. These prior art references provide information usable in generating an autostereoscopic image of high quality. However, an important notion lacking from these references is that creating a predictable and controllable level of stereo apparent in such an autostereoscopic image is directly dependent upon the precise positional relationship between subject matter of the source image and the image acquisition device(s); the specific image acquisition device settings; and a scaling factor imposed on the source images prior to the combination of said source images into the interleaved subject image data file used to create the autostereoscopic image. Autostereoscopic images created without proper attention to these factors can result in the visual components appearing stuttered, jagged or otherwise dissipated. Without a well-defined process by which image acquisition device positions are determined, results with regard to the usage of the illusory three-dimensional depth of an autostereoscopic image (that is, the level of stereo) are left to trial-and-error, hypothesis or chance, as opposed to intention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,743 to Pierre Allio (hereinafter “the Allio patent”) discloses one method of intentional controlling the level of stereo apparent in an autostereoscopic image through specific positioning of image acquisition devices. However, the invention described in the Allio patent only relates to the generation of an autostereoscopic image displayed on a screen using video images, and does not relate to images created using other materials/devices (such as paper, ink and printers). The Allio patent focuses primarily on autostereoscopic images created using images generated from a three-dimensional database, leaving out considerations necessary when acquiring images using actual cameras in a real world setting.